in a broad sense is referring to all human activity. A specific group of human’s shared goals, practices, values and attitudes. Culture is also how you identify yourself as an individual which includes, but is not limited to, your family and their background, but it also includes the person you want to be. These identities are accumulated from the deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, and meanings throughout generations.
Folk Culture: The idea that ways of life and tradition can be preserved through the use of history, stories, song, dance, etc. This can be done by passing on family knowledge and wisdom, such as story telling by Native Americans.
Mass Culture: the stereotypical popular culture norm that was brought on by industrialization and the rapid growth of technology which is very widely accepted in society. Visual example;
to contemplate
Three themes in Video; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQOBWKgFRGw&NR=1 "Splendid China Trip July 2009"
1)Builders of theme park "attempt to Preserve" folk life of China.
2)Destruction by hurricane led the park to disuse and abandonment. A symbol of the folk culture turning into an idea/myth to be desired.
3)The skaters; youth Sub-culture of today's western mass culture. Utilizing branding, marking everything to mark their existence in the world and an outgrowth of western mass culture's current obsession to have "designer label" items that equate to being associated with their ascribed culture.
Primary & Secondary Sources
Primary and Secondary SourcesPrimary Sources A primary source is a document or physical object which was written or created during the time under study. It is first hand evidence.
Examples:
Original Documents
Autobiographies, diaries, e-mail, interviews, letters, news film footage, official records, photographs, raw research data, speeches.
Secondary Sources A secondary source interprets and analyzes primary sources. These sources are one or more steps removed from the event. They are accounts of the past created by people writing about events sometime after they happened. Secondary sources may have pictures, quotes or graphics of primary sources in them.
Examples:
Textbooks
Magazine articles
Criticisms and Commentaries
Encyclopedias
Primary vs. Secondary Sources by the Hartness Library
Hegemony Cultural Hegemony was founded by Antonio Gramsci, which is the ability of the ruling class to persuade other classes to accept its values, to gain consent of their rule.
Hegemony is domination of a particular social group, nation or political entity over others. In the post war area, the Soviet Union was commonly referred to as having hegemony over Eastern Europe and the Warsaw Pact nations. The word comes from the Greek 'hegemon', or 'leader'. Hegemony can also be applied to ideological groupings, in the sense that communism had ideological hegemony over Marxism, and other byproducts of the communist pantheon of ideologies.
Current ideas of hegemony that affect you:
The idea of police enforcement
You accept that the laws that you abide by in public are a direct result of who you vote in office, who creates these laws, and how these laws are enforced
NO SOUND - song Belle was removed from youtube due to copy right infringemnt.
POP Art!
An art movement and style that had its origins in England in the 1950s and made its way to the United States during the 1960s. Pop artists have focused attention upon familiar images of the popular culture such as billboards, comic strips, magazine advertisements, and supermarket products. Leading exponents are Richard Hamilton (British, 1922-), Andy Warhol (American, 1928?1930?-1987), Roy Lichtenstein (American, 1923-1997), Claes Oldenburg (American, 1929-), Jasper Johns (American, 1930-), and Robert Rauschenberg (American, 1925-). (http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/p/popart.html)(michaelarnoldart.com)Pop Art currently is enjoyed in various take offssuch as this picture taken outside theSan Antonio Museum of Art.by taking the picture with the patrol carI am Pop-cycling... making a new messageThat Art stored honey of the Human soulthat there is a human with a soul in each patrol carto serve and protect our city. recycled pop art
Pop Art 11-2010 -Photo by Laura Motis
Why pop art? This movement was marked by a fascination with popular culture reflecting the affluence in post-war society. It was most prominent in American art but soon spread to Britain. In celebrating everyday objects such as soup cans, washing powder, comic strips and soda pop bottles, the movement turned the commonplace into icons. Source: http://www.artmovements.co.uk/popart.htm
Beer 10,000 BC – 870 BC Wine 870 BC – 1000 AD Spirits 1000 AD – 1660 Coffee 1660 – 1789 Tea 1789 – 1886 Cola 1886 – 2005 Water 2005 –
Coca Cola The Real Thing is: Pop.... Culture! Group IV IDS 3123 Culture, Literature, and Fine Arts Members: Zachary Bates Jessica Cervera Catherine Escalante Laura Motis Michelle Sauter Danielle Thatcher
According to Coca Cola, “The world is changing all around us. To continue to thrive as a business…we must look ahead, understand the trends and forces that will shape our business in the future and move swiftly to prepare for what's to come. We must get ready for tomorrow today.” Every company begins with an idea that idea turns into a goal and that goal turns into a mission. Some companies, dream small and realistically and some companies, like Coca Cola, dream big and even dream things that seem impossible. September 5, 1919, an important day in Coca-Cola history. Ernest Woodruff purchased The Coca-Cola Company for $25 million. Its stock was then put on sale in the New York Stock Exchange. Common stock was sold at $40 per share and preferred stock at $100 per share. Today Common stock is sold for approximately $63 per share varying from day to day with the market. At first the symbol used in the New York Stock Exchange was CCO but in 1923 it was changed to KO. Today his son Robert Woodruff is the owner of Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola today has become one of the most recognized brands in the world. It is the best selling soft drink today according to Business Week. It is sold in nearly every country around the world. Even in the previous recession Coca-Cola lost less of its market value than any of its competitors. Hansen Natural Corporation, producer of Monster Energy Drinks, lost a whopping 43%. While Pepsi lost 29% and Dr Pepper lost 31%, Coca-Cola only lost 27%. One might say that that was only 2% less than Pepsi so that’s not that much better. However 2% is quite a lot of money when we are talking about 2% of billions of dollars! In 2009 alone there were 2.9 billion unit cases of Coca-Cola products purchased in North America alone. There were 2.4 billion unit cases purchased in Europe, although Latin America led the way with 4.3 billion unit cases of Coca-Cola products purchased. 24.4 billion unit cases of Coca-Cola products were sold worldwide in 2009. Net Operating Revenues have gone up by over 4 billion dollars just since 2006. Coca-Cola is a thriving company growing more and more every year. With this growth comes a large amount of people who are employed by Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola operates in over 200 countries and employs 92,800 people. The Coca-Cola Company has come up with a vision for 2020. They plan to increase their Operating Revenues to $1 trillion. If they succeed with this goal not only will the company have more than doubled its current Operating Revenue but this will cause an increase in the number of people employed by Coca-Cola. While you may think that Coca-Cola Company just produces the famous Coca-Cola soft drink you are wrong. Coca-Cola produces 3,300 different beverages. These different beverages include: 100 percent fruit juices and different fruit drinks, waters, sports and energy drinks, tea, coffee, and milk-and soy-based beverages along with the diet and regular sparkling beverages. Coca Cola, the product, the name, and the company have changed greatly over the course of its existence. The company is constantly trying to improve not only the products, but themselves as well. Coca Cola all began with the simplicities of life a little water, a little sugar, and a whole lot of creativity to turn it into a world wide phenomenon and one of the greatest inventions ever to appear in popular culture. Water is the elixir of life, and “Coke. It’s the Real Thing.” Coke put the pop into Pop Culture. Although water has been flavored by humans since the beginning of time, when Coca Cola came along, it is the first globally embraced product that allowed humans to have fun with their daily consumption of drinking fluids, which is a necessity for our species to stay alive. “Coke. It’s the Real Thing.” is a memorable slogan from a 1969 advertising campaign, designed to let consumers know that those other “phony colas” out there which were not the real thing, but only discount knock-offs. There’s only one real cola and these advertisers wanted us to know that it was Coke. The first slogan was simply put as “Drink Coca Cola” and in 1929 their first “big” advertising slogan came out; “The pause that refreshes”. By the turn of the twentieth century, the Coca Cola that we know today had a secure toe hold to become the most popular product on earth, to eventually to become the symbol of an expression of cultural dominance. This portable liquid refreshment giving a kick from the combination of the sugar, kola nut and a little bit of Coca, fueled the industrial world worker, and brought water purification to the world with the expansion of the Coca Cola products. Coca Cola became a global pop culture sensation as a flavored water with dynamic advertising, by helping others help themselves with owning a business supported by a big corporation, bringing an industrial modern drink to mainly a rural if not poverty level third world lifestyles across North America and the World. Since the dawn of time Mankind has flavored his water. Cave artifacts date beer as a staple as long as ten to twelve thousand years ago. Beer was and still is safer to consume than the “local” drinking water, around the world, even here in the US of A. Focusing on key “flavorings” of water a time line can be made from the major introductions that had and still are global drinks of choice. Major trade, expansion of civilization, wars and popular culture has narrowed the list to “Key” six beverages, as explained in Tom Standage’s book “A History of the World in Six Glasses”, they are Beer 10,000 BC – 870 BC, Wine 870 BC – 1000 AD, Spirits 1000 AD – 1660, Coffee 1660 – 1789, Tea 1789 – 1886, Cola 1886 – 2005, and currently the “bottling of Water 2005 – (which the company Coca Cola is a major producer around the world). Prior to Coca Cola’s “burst” upon the world’s stage of popular drinks consumed, it is important to look at the lifestyle, inventions and people of the 1800’s to see how the way was paved to create this opportunity for humanity to utilize cola for as a choice for the daily consumption of fluids. With the expansion west ward in the USA, beer was the main choice of beverage in towns, and this made possible the financial incentive for building refrigeration, ice hauling, bottle manufacturing, bottle caps, and water purification. As growth in the USA increased from the beginning of the 1800’s of 5 million citizens to over 64 million towards the end, pharmacies with soda fountains became very popular and became integral in towns as “the spot” to meet for all of societies. Carbonated drinks were invented in 18th-century Europe and became a 20th-century phenomenon. It was in the supplying of druggists in 1863, that the inventor of Coca Cola sold products to and became very successful. When the temperance movement became popular enough to pass a Georgia prohibition law in 1886, like any good businessman Dr. Pemberton re-configured his product to stay in business. Sweetened now without wine but with sugar, he took his “new old product” to the biggest pharmacy in Atlanta (one of his customers) and asked them to sell the coca cola syrup with a bit of water to their customers. That first year was a “loss” financially but the next year it took off as more word of mouth extolled the benefits of the non-alcohol liquid refreshment. Sales increased when a soda jerk filled a glass of syrup with soda water to appease a man’s head ache, where it is reported that he rather liked the concoction. In 1887 Georgia prohibition law was repealed, Dr Pemberton went back to his “original” products made with wine allowing Asa Griggs Chandler to start acquiring the product rights. By 1891 Mr. Chandler owned 100% of the product and started to make history with his novel approaches to marketing which paved the way for the future iconic super star status of Coca Cola. With the focus on selling and supplying bulk syrup, another man came up with the idea of selling it in bottles to supply the exponentially increasing demand of the product and as an answer to the demand of customers to take the product with them. With so many competitors around including several with the “original formula” it was through Mr. Chandler’s novel and unceasingly push of advertising that complemented his distribution routes, consistent high quality syrup and formula tweaking to enhance the flavor that made Coca Cola a household brand name. Painting barns with the word drink with the simple logo made from the popular formal handwriting of the era, “Spencerian script”, offering coupons, to branding on what we all know today as “Advertising Specialty” on novelty products was his grass root approach to conquer the market place. As sales soared print advertising was added, with images of ever so happy, upbeat people gathering and enjoying conversation with a Coca Cola. People as a species are hard wired genetically for survival to consume water or some other liquid daily. What’s found in Coke after all the sizzle of the marketing and advertising is a liquid product delivering billions of life sustaining, thirst quenching sips; crossing society caste systems, age gender and nationalities. With the rise of Coca Cola came the rise of American capitalism and the luxury to afford pop and the trappings of American culture that came in the 1950’s and beyond. Essentially a liquid candy with the addictive nature’s of it’s two main ingredients of sugar (currently now corn syrup) and the Kola nut combined with water, the elixir of life; gave inspiration to generations to express themselves and see the humanity in all individuals, which was best said by a leading pop culture icon himself, Andy Warhol. "What's great about this country is America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you can know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good." “Coke. It’s the Real Thing” putting the pop into Pop Culture. It is because of people like you, the consumer, and people like Andy Warhol, an icon, that demonstrate the impact of Coke on our society because when you reach for that bottle or can when you’re thirsty you take part in the culture that can’t be denied to anyone. The success of Coca Cola or any company for that matter would not exist if they didn’t put their product out on the line for the world to see, and because the world can easily see and relate to the beverage it is able to change instantly with the times this is seen through the use of media and ads. Advertisement goes hand in hand with the cultural revelations of the specific time period it is released. Any successful company, like Coca Cola, strives to appeal to the masses by continuing to change the phases of their advertisement as the cultural boundaries change in society. It all began around 1886 and Coca Cola had its debut with the first advertisements on May 1, 1889 when Asa Candler published a full-page advertisement in The Atlanta Journal proclaiming “Delicious. Refreshing. Exhilarating. Invigorating.” (Coca Cola). In the early 1900’s replications of both the brand of Coca Cola along with its advertisements begin to pop up as the company became more renowned. To suffice these replications Coca Cola designed its unique shaped bottle that we recognize today. Under new management in 1919 the company changed its route to focus more on the quality of the drink which in turn would lead to more sales output. Advertisements begin to change to appeal more to the simplicity in drinking coke by applying it to the “everyday” woman. The women depicted in the advertisements are some that were represented as the epitome of a woman. These woman had poise and class while also being fun loving and adventurous. Later on during the 1940s as WWII progressed, the advertisements began to follow the theme of the soldier going off to war with Coca Cola at his side. “The entry of the United States into the war brought an order from Robert Woodruff in 1941 "to see that every man in uniform gets a bottle of Coca-Cola for 5 cents, wherever he is and whatever it costs the Company” (Coca Cola). Moving into the 1950s Coca Cola fueled its advertisements by appealing to just about everyone. They began to advertise towards the adolescents, the working man and woman, and the populations across the globe. They did this by including slogans on their advertisements offering an explanation of how good Coke was for everyone. “Through the years, jingles and slogans have set the pace for Coca-Cola advertising. One of the world's most famous advertising slogans, "The Pause That Refreshes," first appeared in The Saturday Evening Post in 1929. It was supported by "It's the Refreshing Thing to do" in 1936 and 1944's "Global High Sign." The 1950s produced "Sign of Good Taste," "Be Really Refreshed" and "Go Better Refreshed.” Many more memorable slogans followed, including "Things Go Better with Coke" in 1963. "It's the Real Thing," first used in 1942, and was revived in 1969 to support a new, tremendously successful merchandising stance for Coca-Cola” (Coca Cola). Coca Cola could not have maintained such a success if it hadn’t appealed to the masses through multiple routes of media. While paper advertisements proved successful, radio and eventually television ads worked to produce a higher success rate for the company. “Since the mid-1920s, radio had been the most important communication medium for Coca-Cola. In the 1960s, the popular "Things Go Better with Coke" jingle became a hit radio spot, using successful groups sang the jingle in their own musical styles” (coca cola website). Into the 1950s Cokes brand began to fluctuate more with the wants of the customer. Some of these include mixing coke with alcohol and ice cream, or drinking a coke a sports game, and even spending time with the family drinking coke. Celebrities and athletes were a huge commodity to the company as leeways into the hearts of Coca Cola drinkers. As the Coca Cola company began to expand nationally and globally the options were unlimited and this led to the company to devise new coke products that could be sold on the market. By appealing to the consumer and satisfying our basic needs such as thirst, and appealing to our wants by supplying us with a tasty liquid candy, and by appealing to our minds through advertising and pop culture Coca cola has mastered it all. The products that Coca Cola products are endless and they make so much more than soda for the world today. Coca Cola not only produces beverages and is one of the largest earning corporations, but they also give back to society. They currently invest over eighty million dollars per year giving back to communities worldwide to support causes like education through scholarship programs, pollution/protecting the environment, promoting healthy living campaigns, saving the arts, and even disaster relief and AIDS relief in some parts of the world. Their support extends to people all over the world of all races and backgrounds. Coke takes pride in not only bettering the product and advertisements, but on how to make the manufacturing and distributing of their products goes as well, and the happiness of their consumers. Coca cola evolved from a simple drink created in the 1800s available at local soda fountains to a drink that can be found and seen in practically every supermarket or restaurant in any major city. They changed their recipe, their look, their goals, and their ads, to keep their loyal customers happy. This company has proven they can and will change with the times and will not disappear and for that we propose cheers to you Coca Cola.
| Culture | Folk and Mass Culture | Primary & Secondary Sources | Hegemony | POP Art! | Final Project The Real Thing is: Pop.... Culture!
Culture
Culture
in a broad sense is referring to all human activity. A specific group of human’s shared goals, practices, valPhotos were borrowed from:
http://bookbuilder.cast.org/bookresources/9380/34215_1.jpg
http://www.terraspirit.com/memories/112105_generations.jpg
Folk and Mass Culture
Folk and Mass Culture
Folk Culture: The idea that ways of life and tradition can be preserved through the use of history, stories, song, dance, etc. This can be done by passing on family knowledge and wisdom, such as story telling by Native Americans.Mass Culture: the stereotypical popular culture norm that was brought on by industrialization and the rapid growth of technology which is very widely accepted in society.
Visual example;
"Splendid China Trip July 2009"
1)Builders of theme park "attempt to Preserve" folk life of China.
2)Destruction by hurricane led the park to disuse and abandonment. A symbol of the folk culture turning into an idea/myth to be desired.
3)The skaters; youth Sub-culture of today's western mass culture. Utilizing branding, marking everything to mark their existence in the world and an outgrowth of western mass culture's current obsession to have "designer label" items that equate to being associated with their ascribed culture.
Primary & Secondary Sources
Primary and Secondary SourcesPrimary Sources
A primary source is a document or physical object which was written or created during the time under study. It is first hand evidence.
Examples:
Secondary Sources
A secondary source interprets and analyzes primary sources. These sources are one or more steps removed from the event. They are accounts of the past created by people writing about events sometime after they happened. Secondary sources may have pictures, quotes or graphics of primary sources in them.
Examples:
Primary vs. Secondary Sources by the Hartness Library
http://hartness.vsc.edu/
References:
http://www.princeton.edu/~refdesk/primary2.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s13KpDtKAys&feature=relat
http://www.princeton.edu/~refdesk/primary2.html
Hegemony
Hegemony
Cultural Hegemony was founded by Antonio Gramsci, which is the ability of the ruling class to persuade other classes to accept its values, to gain consent of their rule.
Hegemony is domination of a particular social group, nation or political entity over others. In the post war area, the Soviet Union was commonly referred to as having hegemony over Eastern Europe and the Warsaw Pact nations. The word comes from the Greek 'hegemon', or 'leader'. Hegemony can also be applied to ideological groupings, in the sense that communism had ideological hegemony over Marxism, and other byproducts of the communist pantheon of ideologies.
Current ideas of hegemony that affect you:
The idea of police enforcement
Reference:
http://www.examplesof.com/society/hegemony.html)
http://culturalstudies07.wordpress.com/
Popular Culture Perpetuates the
Hegemony of Capitalism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp-OffypvpENO SOUND - song Belle was removed from youtube due to copy right infringemnt.
POP Art!
An art movement and style that had its origins in England in the 1950s and made its way to the United States during the 1960s. Pop artists have focused attention upon familiar images of the popular culture such as billboards, comic strips, magazine advertisements, and supermarket products. Leading exponents are Richard Hamilton (British, 1922-), Andy Warhol (American, 1928?1930?-1987), Roy Lichtenstein (American, 1923-1997), Claes Oldenburg (American, 1929-), Jasper Johns (American, 1930-), and Robert Rauschenberg (American, 1925-). (http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/p/popart.html)Why pop art?
This movement was marked by a fascination with popular culture reflecting the affluence in post-war society. It was most prominent in American art but soon spread to Britain. In celebrating everyday objects such as soup cans, washing powder, comic strips and soda pop bottles, the movement turned the commonplace into icons.
Source: http://www.artmovements.co.uk/popart.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog+andywarhol
http://lablogdevictoria.blogspot.com/2009/02/pop-artroy-lichtenstein.html
Final Project The Real Thing is: Pop.... Culture!
Beer 10,000 BC – 870 BC Wine 870 BC – 1000 AD Spirits 1000 AD – 1660 Coffee 1660 – 1789 Tea 1789 – 1886 Cola 1886 – 2005 Water 2005 –
Coca Cola
The Real Thing is: Pop.... Culture!
Group IV
IDS 3123 Culture, Literature, and Fine Arts
Members:
Zachary Bates
Jessica Cervera
Catherine Escalante
Laura Motis
Michelle Sauter
Danielle Thatcher
According to Coca Cola, “The world is changing all around us. To continue to thrive as a business…we must look ahead, understand the trends and forces that will shape our business in the future and move swiftly to prepare for what's to come. We must get ready for tomorrow today.” Every company begins with an idea that idea turns into a goal and that goal turns into a mission. Some companies, dream small and realistically and some companies, like Coca Cola, dream big and even dream things that seem impossible.
September 5, 1919, an important day in Coca-Cola history. Ernest Woodruff purchased The Coca-Cola Company for $25 million. Its stock was then put on sale in the New York Stock Exchange. Common stock was sold at $40 per share and preferred stock at $100 per share. Today Common stock is sold for approximately $63 per share varying from day to day with the market. At first the symbol used in the New York Stock Exchange was CCO but in 1923 it was changed to KO. Today his son Robert Woodruff is the owner of Coca-Cola.
Coca-Cola today has become one of the most recognized brands in the world. It is the best selling soft drink today according to Business Week. It is sold in nearly every country around the world. Even in the previous recession Coca-Cola lost less of its market value than any of its competitors. Hansen Natural Corporation, producer of Monster Energy Drinks, lost a whopping 43%. While Pepsi lost 29% and Dr Pepper lost 31%, Coca-Cola only lost 27%. One might say that that was only 2% less than Pepsi so that’s not that much better. However 2% is quite a lot of money when we are talking about 2% of billions of dollars! In 2009 alone there were 2.9 billion unit cases of Coca-Cola products purchased in North America alone. There were 2.4 billion unit cases purchased in Europe, although Latin America led the way with 4.3 billion unit cases of Coca-Cola products purchased. 24.4 billion unit cases of Coca-Cola products were sold worldwide in 2009. Net Operating Revenues have gone up by over 4 billion dollars just since 2006.
Coca-Cola is a thriving company growing more and more every year. With this growth comes a large amount of people who are employed by Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola operates in over 200 countries and employs 92,800 people. The Coca-Cola Company has come up with a vision for 2020. They plan to increase their Operating Revenues to $1 trillion. If they succeed with this goal not only will the company have more than doubled its current Operating Revenue but this will cause an increase in the number of people employed by Coca-Cola.
While you may think that Coca-Cola Company just produces the famous Coca-Cola soft drink you are wrong. Coca-Cola produces 3,300 different beverages. These different beverages include: 100 percent fruit juices and different fruit drinks, waters, sports and energy drinks, tea, coffee, and milk-and soy-based beverages along with the diet and regular sparkling beverages.
Coca Cola, the product, the name, and the company have changed greatly over the course of its existence. The company is constantly trying to improve not only the products, but themselves as well. Coca Cola all began with the simplicities of life a little water, a little sugar, and a whole lot of creativity to turn it into a world wide phenomenon and one of the greatest inventions ever to appear in popular culture.
Water is the elixir of life, and “Coke. It’s the Real Thing.” Coke put the pop into Pop Culture. Although water has been flavored by humans since the beginning of time, when Coca Cola came along, it is the first globally embraced product that allowed humans to have fun with their daily consumption of drinking fluids, which is a necessity for our species to stay alive. “Coke. It’s the Real Thing.” is a memorable slogan from a 1969 advertising campaign, designed to let consumers know that those other “phony colas” out there which were not the real thing, but only discount knock-offs. There’s only one real cola and these advertisers wanted us to know that it was Coke. The first slogan was simply put as “Drink Coca Cola” and in 1929 their first “big” advertising slogan came out; “The pause that refreshes”.
By the turn of the twentieth century, the Coca Cola that we know today had a secure toe hold to become the most popular product on earth, to eventually to become the symbol of an expression of cultural dominance. This portable liquid refreshment giving a kick from the combination of the sugar, kola nut and a little bit of Coca, fueled the industrial world worker, and brought water purification to the world with the expansion of the Coca Cola products. Coca Cola became a global pop culture sensation as a flavored water with dynamic advertising, by helping others help themselves with owning a business supported by a big corporation, bringing an industrial modern drink to mainly a rural if not poverty level third world lifestyles across North America and the World.
Since the dawn of time Mankind has flavored his water. Cave artifacts date beer as a staple as long as ten to twelve thousand years ago. Beer was and still is safer to consume than the “local” drinking water, around the world, even here in the US of A. Focusing on key “flavorings” of water a time line can be made from the major introductions that had and still are global drinks of choice. Major trade, expansion of civilization, wars and popular culture has narrowed the list to “Key” six beverages, as explained in Tom Standage’s book “A History of the World in Six Glasses”, they are Beer 10,000 BC – 870 BC, Wine 870 BC – 1000 AD, Spirits 1000 AD – 1660, Coffee 1660 – 1789, Tea 1789 – 1886, Cola 1886 – 2005, and currently the “bottling of Water 2005 – (which the company Coca Cola is a major producer around the world).
Prior to Coca Cola’s “burst” upon the world’s stage of popular drinks consumed, it is important to look at the lifestyle, inventions and people of the 1800’s to see how the way was paved to create this opportunity for humanity to utilize cola for as a choice for the daily consumption of fluids. With the expansion west ward in the USA, beer was the main choice of beverage in towns, and this made possible the financial incentive for building refrigeration, ice hauling, bottle manufacturing, bottle caps, and water purification. As growth in the USA increased from the beginning of the 1800’s of 5 million citizens to over 64 million towards the end, pharmacies with soda fountains became very popular and became integral in towns as “the spot” to meet for all of societies. Carbonated drinks were invented in 18th-century Europe and became a 20th-century phenomenon.
It was in the supplying of druggists in 1863, that the inventor of Coca Cola sold products to and became very successful. When the temperance movement became popular enough to pass a Georgia prohibition law in 1886, like any good businessman Dr. Pemberton re-configured his product to stay in business. Sweetened now without wine but with sugar, he took his “new old product” to the biggest pharmacy in Atlanta (one of his customers) and asked them to sell the coca cola syrup with a bit of water to their customers. That first year was a “loss” financially but the next year it took off as more word of mouth extolled the benefits of the non-alcohol liquid refreshment. Sales increased when a soda jerk filled a glass of syrup with soda water to appease a man’s head ache, where it is reported that he rather liked the concoction. In 1887 Georgia prohibition law was repealed, Dr Pemberton went back to his “original” products made with wine allowing Asa Griggs Chandler to start acquiring the product rights. By 1891 Mr. Chandler owned 100% of the product and started to make history with his novel approaches to marketing which paved the way for the future iconic super star status of Coca Cola.
With the focus on selling and supplying bulk syrup, another man came up with the idea of selling it in bottles to supply the exponentially increasing demand of the product and as an answer to the demand of customers to take the product with them. With so many competitors around including several with the “original formula” it was through Mr. Chandler’s novel and unceasingly push of advertising that complemented his distribution routes, consistent high quality syrup and formula tweaking to enhance the flavor that made Coca Cola a household brand name. Painting barns with the word drink with the simple logo made from the popular formal handwriting of the era, “Spencerian script”, offering coupons, to branding on what we all know today as “Advertising Specialty” on novelty products was his grass root approach to conquer the market place. As sales soared print advertising was added, with images of ever so happy, upbeat people gathering and enjoying conversation with a Coca Cola.
People as a species are hard wired genetically for survival to consume water or some other liquid daily. What’s found in Coke after all the sizzle of the marketing and advertising is a liquid product delivering billions of life sustaining, thirst quenching sips; crossing society caste systems, age gender and nationalities. With the rise of Coca Cola came the rise of American capitalism and the luxury to afford pop and the trappings of American culture that came in the 1950’s and beyond.
Essentially a liquid candy with the addictive nature’s of it’s two main ingredients of sugar (currently now corn syrup) and the Kola nut combined with water, the elixir of life; gave inspiration to generations to express themselves and see the humanity in all individuals, which was best said by a leading pop culture icon himself, Andy Warhol.
"What's great about this country is America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you can know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good."
“Coke. It’s the Real Thing” putting the pop into Pop Culture.
It is because of people like you, the consumer, and people like Andy Warhol, an icon, that demonstrate the impact of Coke on our society because when you reach for that bottle or can when you’re thirsty you take part in the culture that can’t be denied to anyone. The success of Coca Cola or any company for that matter would not exist if they didn’t put their product out on the line for the world to see, and because the world can easily see and relate to the beverage it is able to change instantly with the times this is seen through the use of media and ads.
Advertisement goes hand in hand with the cultural revelations of the specific time period it is released. Any successful company, like Coca Cola, strives to appeal to the masses by continuing to change the phases of their advertisement as the cultural boundaries change in society. It all began around 1886 and Coca Cola had its debut with the first advertisements on May 1, 1889 when Asa Candler published a full-page advertisement in The Atlanta Journal proclaiming “Delicious. Refreshing. Exhilarating. Invigorating.” (Coca Cola).
In the early 1900’s replications of both the brand of Coca Cola along with its advertisements begin to pop up as the company became more renowned. To suffice these replications Coca Cola designed its unique shaped bottle that we recognize today. Under new management in 1919 the company changed its route to focus more on the quality of the drink which in turn would lead to more sales output. Advertisements begin to change to appeal more to the simplicity in drinking coke by applying it to the “everyday” woman. The women depicted in the advertisements are some that were represented as the epitome of a woman. These woman had poise and class while also being fun loving and adventurous. Later on during the 1940s as WWII progressed, the advertisements began to follow the theme of the soldier going off to war with Coca Cola at his side. “The entry of the United States into the war brought an order from Robert Woodruff in 1941 "to see that every man in uniform gets a bottle of Coca-Cola for 5 cents, wherever he is and whatever it costs the Company” (Coca Cola).
Moving into the 1950s Coca Cola fueled its advertisements by appealing to just about everyone. They began to advertise towards the adolescents, the working man and woman, and the populations across the globe. They did this by including slogans on their advertisements offering an explanation of how good Coke was for everyone.
“Through the years, jingles and slogans have set the pace for Coca-Cola advertising. One of the world's most famous advertising slogans, "The Pause That Refreshes," first appeared in The Saturday Evening Post in 1929. It was supported by "It's the Refreshing Thing to do" in 1936 and 1944's "Global High Sign." The 1950s produced "Sign of Good Taste," "Be Really Refreshed" and "Go Better Refreshed.” Many more memorable slogans followed, including "Things Go Better with Coke" in 1963. "It's the Real Thing," first used in 1942, and was revived in 1969 to support a new, tremendously successful merchandising stance for Coca-Cola” (Coca Cola).
Coca Cola could not have maintained such a success if it hadn’t appealed to the masses through multiple routes of media. While paper advertisements proved successful, radio and eventually television ads worked to produce a higher success rate for the company. “Since the mid-1920s, radio had been the most important communication medium for Coca-Cola. In the 1960s, the popular "Things Go Better with Coke" jingle became a hit radio spot, using successful groups sang the jingle in their own musical styles” (coca cola website). Into the 1950s Cokes brand began to fluctuate more with the wants of the customer. Some of these include mixing coke with alcohol and ice cream, or drinking a coke a sports game, and even spending time with the family drinking coke. Celebrities and athletes were a huge commodity to the company as leeways into the hearts of Coca Cola drinkers. As the Coca Cola company began to expand nationally and globally the options were unlimited and this led to the company to devise new coke products that could be sold on the market.
By appealing to the consumer and satisfying our basic needs such as thirst, and appealing to our wants by supplying us with a tasty liquid candy, and by appealing to our minds through advertising and pop culture Coca cola has mastered it all. The products that Coca Cola products are endless and they make so much more than soda for the world today. Coca Cola not only produces beverages and is one of the largest earning corporations, but they also give back to society. They currently invest over eighty million dollars per year giving back to communities worldwide to support causes like education through scholarship programs, pollution/protecting the environment, promoting healthy living campaigns, saving the arts, and even disaster relief and AIDS relief in some parts of the world. Their support extends to people all over the world of all races and backgrounds. Coke takes pride in not only bettering the product and advertisements, but on how to make the manufacturing and distributing of their products goes as well, and the happiness of their consumers.
Coca cola evolved from a simple drink created in the 1800s available at local soda fountains to a drink that can be found and seen in practically every supermarket or restaurant in any major city. They changed their recipe, their look, their goals, and their ads, to keep their loyal customers happy. This company has proven they can and will change with the times and will not disappear and for that we propose cheers to you Coca Cola.
Works Cited:
A history of the world in six glasses . (n.d.). Retrieved from http://tomstandage.wordpress.com/books/a-history-of-the-world-in-six-glasses/
Coca Cola Company, Initials. (2010). The coca-cola company. Retrieved from http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/
First source: Laura Motis, caffeine addict 35 years, enjoy the “reliability of taste & caffeine quanity” of diet colas.
Fonts.com, Initials. (n.d.). Spencerians scripts. Retrieved from http://www.fonts.com/AboutFonts/Articles/fyti/11-01-2004.htm
Ryzone Financial Inc, Initials. (2008, November 15). Coca cola stock history company infonews events. Retrieved from http://www.ryzone.com/stock_history/coca_cola_stock_history_company_info_news_events.php
Temperance Movement. (2007). The new georgia encyclopedia. Retrieved November 27, 2010, from http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-828
Coca Cola Powerpoint
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=1PzlxVK6SB73fiJ-3ImwxPe5OwKvj3zT_AbYgR1ow9l-qAVV2sJpbI5j13VjU&hl=en